


Fables on Morality

by liberum_arbitrium



Series: Ironstrange in AUs [1]
Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-05-15 18:36:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19301476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liberum_arbitrium/pseuds/liberum_arbitrium
Summary: Peter and his friends are curious of the lonely farmer who seems to have lost trust of his own hands.Peter lives in a household open for passing merchants and Tony, the nicest merchant he's ever met, just told him tales of fantasy, trust, friendship. It kind of makes him wonder what miracles a friend would do for the lonely farmer. Who could be more fitting than Tony himself, right?





	Fables on Morality

Peter ran to get ahead his friends, Ned and MJ. His hair was a tangled mess from rolling around grass and running around under the sun.

Moments like these were not atypical. The three young children would play right after they had helped their respective households. MJ’s household ran the sole bakery in village; she would aid by baking if not by selling around the city square. Ned’s household produced textiles; Ned himself had an affinity for making tops, and his friends were never lacking of a change.

Peter’s household was a housing for passing merchants. He lived with his aunt, May, whose husband is a merchant hardly present. While May is far from wealthy, she is generous, so the merchants treat her and Peter just as generously. Peter would sit with them after serving them their food, and they would give books or tell stories. Peter wishes he could afford to go to school with his friends but the education he receives solely from living with merchants is more than enough.

"Peter! Look! The birds look so much bigger!"

Peter slowed to a stop and turned to find his friends sharing the pair of binoculars he borrowed earlier to stare at the top of a tree. "You sure are enjoying that."

"We should find a hill. That way you both can watch the village and I can draw it like I've wanted to." MJ shrugged and adjusted her bag straps on her shoulders.

"It should be the highest we can find, then!" Ned held onto the pair of binoculars tightly, wearing a determined expression.

"Come on then. It shouldn't be hard." Peter tugged both his friends by their hands, and off they went.

* * *

 

It shouldn't be hard, but it was.

The three reached the opposite of where they had been before they found a "worthy hill," as they had dubbed what they were seeking.

"This is it!" Peter exclaimed, jumping and laughing as he made his way to the top. Ned looked at MJ for clarification, to which she rolled her eyes, smiled and nodded at. That sent the two boys tumbling and laying on the grass.

"Pass the binoculars, MJ!" Peter held his hand out at the girl reaching inside her bag. They decided it was safer there some three unworthy hills ago when Ned had almost dropped it.

MJ pulled it out along with her sketchpad and pencil case, then settled as comfortably as one could against a tree.

The two boys laid on their stomachs with their elbows propping them up. They utilized the set of binoculars as if it were a telescope, pointing it up to the sky and spinning outlandish tales inspired by the characters they make of the clouds. MJ preferred the company of the two despite their tendency to fight over who can claim to voice a particularly bizarre cloud shaped as their ideal protagonist for the day.

“Hey. Losers. Who’s the main character today?” MJ cut in.

“She’s an ice cream cone!” Peter laid on his back, passing Ned the binoculars.

“Rena actually looks like a slice of pie with too much whipped cream that it looks kind of like a hat or a handle.” Ned thoughtfully rebutted.

Peter shrugged and continued, “She’s a polar bear whisperer."  
  
“Polar bears?” MJ tilted her head to the side a little, in question.  
  
“Mr. Stark told me polar bears are these animals that live in the cold, and doesn’t Rena need to be in the cold too?”  
  
“Kind of like penguins.” MJ hummed, resuming her art.  
  
“Yes!” Peter smiled brightly.  
  
“Tony’s so nice! He lent us these cool binoculars, he gives you little gifts, and he tells the best stories!” Ned gushed. “Speaking of stories, anything new?”

“Oh, yes!” Peter lit up, lifting his head over the ground a little as he was reminded of the story he’d been told.  “Last night, when I was telling him about Flash. You guys remember Flash, right?”  
  
“Some kid befriending you. Runs pretty fast.”   
“Hence, Flash. He is very fishy! I don’t trust him, Peter.”  
  
“Yeah! So, I was telling him about Flash and he warned me to pick who my friends are and what should be important, in the form of this... um… fable! Right, fable!” Ned and MJ nodded along.   
  
“So there are these 2 fish. They’re best friends, and they want to participate in this year’s annual under-the-sea race called the Reef Cup for all sea creatures.” Peter got up and animatedly gestured as he told the story. "They excitedly gather with the other creatures behind the rocks that was used as the starting point. They happened to swim beside the eel who had won first place for the past 3 years. They hear the eel cheats, so they intended to be wary and make sure the eel wouldn’t get a chance to touch them, in case they were to get stung. So the race starts and they keep swimming forward until they were the first two! Ahead of everyone else! Even the eel! They could actually see out of the corner of their eyes that the eel stung everyone they encountered. It’s too bad the race was so fast-paced that no one could catch the cheater on the act!”  
  
Peter was flailing his arms around at this point, and his two friends looked on in amusement and wonder.  
  
“The two friends were ahead of everyone. Soon enough, after passing through many parts of the sea, they could see the finish line in the underwater horizon! That was until, from above,...” Peter dramatically paused, climbing a tree for emphasis. “...they saw a box-shaped contraption that shut open and close, open and close, coming down. They were barely able to process it when one of the two friends got trapped in the contraption, and stayed there.”  
  
Ned gasped loudly, startling the other two. “Sorry, I was just trying to be supportive. Go on, Peter.”

“So, the friend in the contraption started to sink until they were on the seabed. The other friend kept rushing the contraption in hopes of freeing their friend. Eventually, the other sea creatures started to catch up to them. The other friend called out to them and the eel, in the lead now, noticed them. The other friend asked the eel for help, but the eel called the other friend… dumb.”  
  
MJ loudly gasped. “Sorry, I was trying to be supportive.”  
  
Peter, halfway up the tree, grinned and went on. “The eel called the other friend dumb because the other friend could have won the race without any competition close-by. The eel didn’t get it though. The eel left to win the race, and the other friend stayed and tried everything to save their friend. They gathered an audience. Every creature a part of the race passed them by and they already lost, but the other creatures still seemed more interested when the other friend found a lever that freed their friend than when the eel won the Reef Cup at first place. In fact, they even won the Sportsmanship Award with so much more people cheering them on than the eel had. The End.”  
  
“Well, it didn’t make much sense, but that was fun.” MJ commented. “How could the contraption open and close _underwater_?”  
  
“Faulty logic aside, I think we received the message that we should stay away from Flash. At least, according to Mr. Stark.” Ned smiled.  
  
“I think it proves that friends do make people better.” Peter announced.  
  
“I thought we had MJ for proof?”  
  
“You trying to say you two make me a better person? You aren’t wrong.”  
  
Peter stood on a sturdy branch as he cooed. “Aww, MJ, we love you too!”  
  
“You’re going to fall from there.” She retorted.  
  
“No, I’m not!” Peter replied defensively.

* * *

Oh, but Peter did. Fall off, that is.  
  
Luckily, on the other side of the hill some ways away from the village, Stephen Strange's farm stood. He was sending last-minute instructions to his co-inhabitant, Wong, and as soon as he waved Wong away, he noticed a young boy get hit by a bird and fall out a tree.  
  
As a responsible, half-functioning adult and former healer, he treated the boy of his wounds beside his two worried friends. One stuttered the whole time and the other just squinted her eyes at him in scrutiny.  
  
"Right. I'll be sending you off. You should be fine."  
  
At that, the boy finally spoke up for the first time their entire encounter.  
  
"Thank you, mister! I'm sorry for all the trouble. You see, I was telling this story and really got in the z-"  
  
"You best go. It'll be late soon." Stephen turned away and folded his bandaged hands over each other.  
  
"O-oh, alright. Thank you. I'll pay you back, I promise. We're sorry again. Bye. Thank you!" Peter stuttered and went on his way with his friends back to the village, looking back at the man and the farm.  
  
The three were near Ned's when someone finally spoke up.  
  
"Told you you were going to fall." MJ announced, to which Peter groaned at.  
  
"Tell me we did not just meet Stephen Strange." Ned loudly interrupted.  
  
MJ was quick to reply. “We didn’t meet whoever that is.”  
  
“Wait, Stephen Strange?” Peter asked Ned.  
  
“Yes! Former healer-turned-farmer Stephen Strange. Stephen was hated but trusted as a healer because he was kind of full of himself. Then he got into this accident, and the only job he could do properly was care for the plants and animals as a farmer. He’s teaching some guy, Wong, on how to tend to the farm. Wong comes over to our store for some clothes sometimes.” Ned explained.  
  
“I guess gossip really comes with being raised in a textile shop.” Peter said. "He was pretty cold to us, though."  
  
"Apparently, that's how he really is." Ned shrugged. "I'm not really surprised.  
  
"He probably just needs some friends." Peter offered.  
  
“Well, we better get home soon, guys.” MJ reminded the two, and soon, they dispersed.  


* * *

"And then we went home after Ned explained who Mr. Stephen Strange was." Peter finished telling the story to Tony.  
  
They were at the dining area of the housing center, eating dinner.  
  
"Well, we better thank him then. Tomorrow, we'll get him a fruit basket." Tony chuckled. "You really do have to be more careful, kid."  
  
"He's a farmer; isn't a fruit basket redundant?" Peter tilted his head in question.  
  
"Free food is always a great idea, Peter."  
  
"If you say so, Mr. Stark."  
  
"Now, since we're quite done eating, let's go to sleep now, yeah?"  
  
"Okay!"  
  
"How's the binoculars?"  
  
"I love it, Mr. Stark!"  
  
"Good, keep it. Might help in your adventures. Sweet dreams, kid."

* * *

The next day, Peter and Tony paid Stephen a visit, bearing a fruit basket. They caught Wong struggling with bought goods and immediately offered to carry it inside for him. When they got inside, a moment was spared for Stephen to point out to Tony that a fruit basket as thanks to a farmer was redundant. Tony argued the "free food argument" again before extending his services to help put away the bought goods he helped carry inside.

Peter was right about Stephen just needing a friend. But Tony always has to do things a little extra.  
  
Soon, Tony didn't just stay in the village a month every year, he settled with the man he'd come to love. 

**Author's Note:**

> The fable isn't mine, and can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtqLwqbw30Q
> 
> This was just a quick thing I worked on in between classes. Sorry for the quality!
> 
> Furthermore, find ways to contact/support me through my carrd: https://ps-rreal.carrd.co/
> 
> For updates, follow my twitter: @ps_rreal  
> Don't hesitate to DM!


End file.
